The Untold Legends: BioDoom
by SeanS16
Summary: A group of teenage kids goes up to Mars, only to face unexpected horrors. Please read and review!  My first publishing here.


THE UNTOLD LEGENDS _

BIODOOM

Prologue

As the class was bored out of their mind,(as usual,) the teacher handed out a field trip permission slip. At first glance, it looked like they were going to a science laboratory. Okay, that sounds like fun, you gotta admit. But as the teacher talked about it, they all got pumped up with excitment. It WAS a laboratory! But, it wasn't what anyone thought possible...

There they were, Sean, Montie, and the whole 8th grade community. Sean was a quiet, short haired dirty blonde. He had always loved guns throughout his life. He memorized every kind of weapon that every branch of every country had in their military. He also loved video games. He had many games that he liked, but he had many other interests.

Montie, on the other hand, was very energetic and loved to be loud. He liked guns, too. He was a little shorter than Sean, and had brown hair. They loved games, and together, they did stuff that would send you laughing up a storm.

Just about everyone signed up to go to, yes, Mars. Scientists have been secretive, and busy for the past 20 years. The news reporters said that NASA did not say why they wanted this project to go public until it was finished. Nobody knows why. All they said was that they had a "small" problem up there, but they fixed it. Hopefully, it wasn't life threatening to the people up there, and who were coming up. The glaciers that formed underneath the surface, got melted down by the large heater system they had made. So, it made an underground lake for the water supply for the trees and people. The trees planted there supplied the oxygen throughout the whole complex, then gets recycled back into the system. For which, they relied on a lot to stay away from suffocating. Which is under the lake. On the surface of Mars, is the front doors to the science facility that controls all of the oxygen, comms, water, and all of that sort of stuff. It was basically the research laboratory of the whole planet.

"So how did your parents take it?" Sean asked Montie.

"They thought it would be a great way to get away, and relax...well sort of."

They caught up with the rest of the group at the Space Shuttle. Their group consisted of 10 students, and 1 chaperone, (Astronaut.) The trip would take about 2-3 months to get there. So, to make the time go by, they have to get into a cryo tube.(A casket that instantly freezes the body's organs, so that there is no damage and the person will not age at all.)

"This is cool, we get to go to Mars! Just how many people do you know that have gone to Mars? I mean, seriously!" Sean continued their conversation.

"I dont know, maybe... NONE! What has gotten into you? You know the risks that we could not come back? Let alone even MAKE it there?"

Montie was kind of "scared" of going, but Sean was, too.( He just didn't express it. Monsters have a way of "calming him down.") Mars was Sean's favorite planet in the Solar System. He knew a lot about the planet.

"Yeah, but we will be sleeping the whole way there, so we wont feel a thing."

"O.K. whatever..." Montie finished the conversation. Little did they know, their conversation was going to be their last normal one for a very long time.

**CHAPTER 1 84 days later/ March 2nd, 2008/ In orbit of Mars**

Sean could feel the wake up stiff flowing through his aching body. When they all got into the cryotubes, they had to put on scratchy blue fatigues for some unknown reason. He struggled to get up, then had a problem: a nasty taste of the gases that was put into every tube. But, oh well, it didn't bother him much. He looked around the cryo bay, through the bulletproof window of the case. Montie was two tubes down the row, waking up in the soundless bed, trying to stretch out his muscles that have not been used for a long time. Their eyes found purchase of one anothers, and they both waved. Then, after a couple of minutes, a thin white man in a labcoat, entered the bay. Sean saw that everyone else was waking up to the wake up stiff, and the putrid taste of the gases, with nasty features on their faces.

The scientist-dude was typing something in a little control panel that most likely controlled the cryo tubes locks. Slowly, but truly, the tubes were opening up after the scientist was done typing. After the doors opened all the way, Sean slowly got out. Once everyone was out of the cryo tubes, the scientist said that they safely got to Mars.

"Hello, everyone, my name is Dr. Isaac J. Newton, and I will be your "guide" for this field trip. Everyone get your regular clothes on, and go down the corridor, then take a left to the cafeteria."

So, the whole 8th grade did what they were told, and they went through the corridor, and ate.

"I'm so hungry, I have not eaten in like, forever!" Montie said in hunger.

"Me too, but the tubes give us oxygen, and food in a liquidated state. Sorry if I sound like a gnerd." A 'gnerd' is a geek and a nerd combined.

"Hmph, nope, you just sound like you read a lot of books that explain how the cryo tube works."

" Oh, well I just listened to the guys who put us in there." Sean said.

"Ah."

They went down the hallway with all the other students, after they all got something to eat. The cafeteria was pretty small, but it could hold all of them twice. They went to the commons, and sat down to wait for the scientist to tell them about something.

"You all are on a multi-million dollar trip that has been scheduled for 3 years, now. We will be boarding the facility in just a little while. We will land in the the center of the complex, and we shall go from there. Get your belongings, and meet back here in 5 minutes." They did as they were told.

"I can't believe this, man. We get to walk on Mars!" Sean was very excited.

"I know, I hope this is NOT going to be like a game I know. Where we all get attacked by mutant...things."

"Ha! I hope so!" Sean finished the conversation. They were all going to be suprised about whats going on with Mars, and its... inhabitants.

**CHAPTER 2/ Day 1**

"The comms are not working. I knew we should have updated them before we left." Dr. Newton was stressed about everything. No response had come from the facility. They had lost contact with Mars for some time, now. That had gotten a few people fretting about it. Either they were on a different channel, or just a technical failure of some kind.

Sean overheard a couple of people saying that water is underground where the city is. That the water is even clearer than Earth's finest. And that it rains down there, too. Its unusual that it can rain underwater. Maybe some kind of prototype weather system is making it do that. But, who knows? To many things to think of right in the begining of an awesome trip.

"So I guess it rains down there." Montie remarked.

"Yeah, I guess so. This is so cool! I want to go secret agent here, and find classified documents. But they probably have tight security because we're coming." Sean was daydreaming of sneaking into a top-access room.

"Ha! Yeah right. You cant even sneak into the teachers lounge without getting caught."

"Umm, yeah, that was you in 7th grade, remember?" Sean came back at him.

"Oh yeah, now I remember...I think..." Montie drifted off in thought. (Even though Sean just made that up.)

"We are about to land, so strap in." Dr. Newton said through the microphone. He had a hint of fear going through his voice.

The shuttle was trying to stay stable in the sudden gust of wind. Soon, the doors opened, and the pilot put the controls down into the shuttle bay. The back of the shuttle opened up for everyone to file out. It was a dark place, as if the power went out. It did! The station was completly silent, save for the mumbles and moving of feet.

" Is this normal? Or a surprise party?" Sean was asking anyone who heard.

"No, this is not normal. Nor a surprise party." Dr. Newton replied with disgust. Everyone was whispering to each other about the same topic. But they talked too quietly for Sean hear in on.

"Then what is this?" Montie said with anger.

"I'm not sure, dude, but keep it cool." Sean replied to Montie. They looked around the dark landing bay. It was 30 meters high, and 4 stories total.

After everyone got completely out of the craft, emergency lights flashed on.

"A silent drill, in case of nasty weather formations come in."Dr. Newton said in thought.

"Why are they on, if there isn't bad weather?" Sean said to himself. Everyone was concerned of what was going on, but they were still quiet about it.

Flashlights were issued to the group leaders, and they all started for the lounge area, where they were supposed to stay at this point. Montie was in another group than Sean, but still walked with him.

"What's going on, genius?" Montie was whispering to Sean. "Why isn't anyone in this place, or answering our calls?"

"I do not know, but I'm getting ready to want a gun." Montie agreed. The group took a left into a small, dark hallway that looked like it continued on forever. Dr. Newton looked like he wanted to get back on the craft, and leave, like every other person in the tour group. After the hallway, they turned right into an intersection that divided the hallway into four different ones. What everyone saw here, changed all their lives...forever.

** CHAPTER 3/ Day 1**

** "**Oh, my..." Dr. Newton didn't even know what to say. On the wall was about two gallons of blood, smeared all over the place. Who knows how many people threw up, started crying, and cowering against the wall, unable to look at the gruesome picture they had unfortunately seen. Two of the "chaperones" came to see what had happened, and said to stay calm while they figure something out. It didn't take long for their plan: a third chaperone brought up a medium-sized container to the other two. On the side, said: SECURITY on it. Sean instantly knew what was inside of it...weapons. Sure enough, when it was opened, they took out three M4's from the container, and Glock's.(An all-around good sidearm for a guard.) People were gasping in disbelief that all this was happening. Sean looked at Montie, who was staring right back at him. Montie scooted over to Sean.

"Dude, why are they taking out guns? Hope they got extra for us."

"I think you were right."

"About what?"

"That you hoped that this was not going to be a repeat of that one game. Well, I think we are." Montie's jaw completely dropped."What?" Sean just nodded to him, and looked away.

The newly formed Security guys were now fully padded, and armed. They looked like Navy SEAL's getting ready to attack a ship full of terrorist's. When they were done, Dr. Newton spoke to the group.

" I am sorry to say, but we got a change of plans. We are currently undergoing some difficult moments right now, so we are just going to get back to the craft, and leave. Something has happened to the people of Mars, so we are just going to leave the planet. I am truly sorry, everyone, I truly am." Just like that, they turned around and headed towards the landing bay. As they were rounding the corner, away from the intersection, Sean looked back to catch a glimpse of a dark figure floating, looking straight back at him. Sean bolted right into the middle of the scared crowd, and didnt look back again.

When they got back to the landing bay, 15 people ran to the craft, eager to get back on. The craft sensed them and triggered the large door, which was just partially open, when there was an ear-breaking sound. But not just A sound, but THREE screeching sounds, that sounded like a woman screaming for dear life. Montie grabbed Sean, and pointed. Sean looked where he was pointing, and saw what looked like a human, save for blood all over it, and blades for hands. Two guards opened fire on one, and the hook-thing just leaped away from the on-coming 5.56mm AP slug rounds. But one round managed to ricochet off the prototype "Titanium-A" walls, and hit it in the thigh. It screeched another deafening sound, and jumped towards the guards. They shot another nine rounds at it, and killed it, before it even hit the ground. By then, the craft's door was fully open. When only 20 people got in, the craft blew up. Sean was flung about 3 meters from the force of the explosion, landing into a group of injured people. Dr. Newton was frantically issuing orders to the guards to cover their escape. Sean helped Montie up, and they ran out of there.

"Danny! Get over here!" Sean yelled to him. Danny saw them, and ran with them into the hallway, again.

"Where are we going?"

"I don't know, but we got to find a spot to hide in!" They turned into the intersection, and kept going forward, past the blood smear.

They didn't stop running until they couldn't hear anything from the bay, or around them. All three of them were breathing really hard, from fear, and running.

"What just happened! I mean, we were just freakin attacked by jumping, hook handed...psychos!" Montie was yelling. Sean waited until his breathing got under control.

"Well, we got attacked, and we just ran away from it, to survive. Did I mention we don't have any weapons!" Sean replied.

"Guys, I think we should just calm down, and think of a way to get out of here. Maybe we should find a safe room, and go from there." Danny suggested.

"OK, thats a good idea. Lets go before they find us. But I want to get some guns in my hands before we do anything after that." Sean announced.

They searched for about 5 minutes, before they found a good spot to stage. They had been as careful as they could be to not attract any attention by noise. The "staging area," was pretty big, and was a whole room that was secure... at least for now.

"Okay, we should probably settle here." Sean told the other two.

"Dude, do you know where we are?" Montie was raising a fight."We are in real life! This is not a video game, it's the real deal! We could die here, no one will know what happened here, all NASA would do is come up here, and clean up the mess...of...of our bodies." He sat down, and quit talking.

"This is not the kind of field trip that every school goes to every year, and after this? Probably not a whole lot of people. Now, we have to go into survival mode. It will be the only way for us, and maybe anyone we find along the way of getting out of here. WHEN we get going." Sean thought to take charge of the situation. Danny opened his mouth to say something, but then decided not too. This was not what they expected to have an unexpected field trip filled with gore, and fear. Soon, Sean sat against the wall, and fell asleep. Danny did the same.

**CHAPTER 4/ Day 2**

"Sean! Wake up! Look what we found!" Montie yelled in Sean's ear. Sean grunted, and opened his eyes part way.

"What happened?" He remembered what had happened just a couple hours ago. He jolted straight up on his feet. Just a few feet away, were two open containers that Danny was happily going through. As a matter of fact, they looked like the one that the Guards brought over. Sean suddenly realized what it held, and a large grin appeared on his face.

"Where did you two find these?" Sean was relieved to have guns in the same area as him.

"They were in a storage room, across the hallway." Danny replied, as he took out an M4. He tossed it to Sean, and as soon as he got it, he was in heaven.

"They have rails..."

"For scopes, flashlights, lasers, foregrips. You name it, we've got it." Montie said off a checklist that he took off of the container."Also, we found a map. Of both of the facilities.

"What do you mean by both?" Sean asked Montie.

"Well, there is the science facility that we're in, and then there's a whole underground city."So there were two places that were built. Two more places to get lost in.

"Okay, well lets get armed with the guns, and figure out a way to get out of here." Sean announced.

They spent thirty minutes sorting through the containers, adding on to their weapons. Sean got an M4, two Glocks, and a six-inch combat knife. He put a red dot sight on the top, laser on the right, flashlight on the forward bottom, a three-point sling to go around onto his back, and finally a foregrip in front of the magazine. He took half of the 5.56mm mags,(which there were twenty total,) and eight clips for the Glocks. He put his knife on the outside of his right knee. Then put the Glocks in his new thigh holsters.

Danny got a Spas 12, two Glocks, and the same kind of knife as Sean, except it had a five-inch blade. Loaded it up with eight rounds, with thirty-two extra shells in his bandolier that went around his waist. He put his knife on the side of his ankle. He stuffed two clips in each of his blue denim jeans back pockets. He also put a sling on the Spas, because it was for heavy duty work, but hopefully, they wont use it often...or at all.

Montie got also got an M4, two Glocks, and a set of ten throwing knives. Montie put the laser on the right side, flashlight on the bottom, sling, and scope on the top. He put five knives on the back of his left shoulder blade, and the other five on his left lower side. They were in a little opened up pouch, so that he could pull them out with no problems. He put the Glocks on each of his thighs, and his M4 in hand.

When they were done arming up, they stood in a line, and Montie handed out suppressors, then they looked at the map. The UAC facility was larger than any of them had expected. It was three miles long until it went outside, and was a couple of stories at some places.

"Where should we go first? I think back to the landing bay, to see if anyone stayed there." Montie suggested.

"No, we should go to the quarters, where Dr. Newton said where we would stay at before any of this happened." Danny replied. Sean studied the map awhile longer, and thought of a plan.

"How about we go to the shuttle bay, then to the quarters. And I have a detour that we can take along the way back." He was staring at a square room, with the title, ARMORY on it. Both knowing Sean, they searched for the room that had to do with anything about guns.

"Okay, I'll get the bags." Montie offered. He went over to the containers and pulled out two duffel bags. Then he put them on his back like a backpack.

"Then it's settled! Lets head out." Danny said as he was pumping his shotgun.

The hallway was more darker than the night before. Sean told them to keep their flashlights, and suppressors on, until they heard something. Sean decided to take lead, Danny in middle, and Montie in rear. They went left and right, as Danny was telling Sean where to go from the map. Finally, they got to the shuttle bay. The ship was still smoking from the blast, and there was a body of one of those hook-handed freaks.

"That's a nice sight." Montie muttered as he walked by the body.

"What are those things? They're so ugly." Danny asked.

"Yeah, I know." Sean agreed. They looked at the body for at least a minute. The thing had half-rotten flesh all over it, and also giant scars on it's face. The clothes were torn in little and big sizes. Three bullet holes were on it's chest and head. The Guards must have made sure that it was dead, so it would not try to kill them again in the future.

"There's no one here... well, alive."Montie said, after clearing the area of the room.

"Who would do such a horrible thing? I mean, kill all these people and try to get away with this?"Sean wondered out loud.

"I don't know, but they are going to pay for who he just killed."Montie said in anger. He had just seen one of his friend's charred body.

"Yeah, and they will die by all means. Let's move out."

They headed out to the opposite hallway that they came through, and Danny took lead. Sean had the map now, so he would tell the directions to them. Montie took the rear again.

"Take a left, then lets head down until the second right." Sean said thoughtfully.

"OK, that's it? Thats where the commons are?" Montie questioned Sean.

"Yep, it is. Just down the dark, scary hall. That's where it should be." He said a matter-of-factly.

"Shhh, quiet!" Danny warned the other two. They had just come to the hallway where they had to turn left. They listened for a while. Then there was a rasping noice just about 20 meters away, around the corner. It was getting louder by the second. Danny peeked around the corner, and ever so slightly, pulled his handgun out to an aiming position. Sean heard the handgun go: CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! Followed by a girly-man scream, and the sound of a body hitting the floor. Danny signaled for Montie to go around to check if the contact was down. Seven seconds later, he lightly whistled for them to join him.

"It's another one of those things." Montie confirmed. It was pretty much the same figure shape as the other one in the shuttle bay. But this one had much smaller blades in it's hands. The other freak seemed like it was a commanding officer of some sort, but not this one.

"Yep, and it's distracting us from our mission. So lets get moving." Sean was sounding very grim, now. He seemed like he was in charge of the unofficial squad, and Montie didn't like that.

"Sean, why do you seem to think that you're in charge? This isn't a game, and I'm not liking it. So why don't you just act like this is real, and not command us, and think you know what's going on, and what's right?" Montie went off. His voice echoed down the long corridors that looked like they were just eating his words right up.

"I'm not! I am just trying to help us survive this. I do not know what's going on, and I want out of here just as much as you do. I'm scared about that..."Sean paused a moment."Just like you."

Montie was swelling up by now, and then there was a noise down the hallway. He let his anger pass...for now. It was a low moaning sound, almost like when you cough up mucus, or something like that. The sound gave a chill down all of their spines. It stopped a second, then it grew louder. It was getting nearer now, for that made Danny shove Montie and Sean into an unlocked door.

They shut the door and locked it. From the sound of the moan, the door probably wont hold out for very long. But it was the only thing to keep them part-way protected. The floor started to rumble, like a faint earthquake. It was a rythmic shaking. Then Danny pointed out that it was foot steps making the small rumbles in the floor.

"What are we going to do, Sean? Or should I say, sir?" Montie was antaganizing Sean on purpose.

"Don't know, butthole, what should we do? You were going off at me being "in charge," so why don't you do it?" Sean lashed back at Montie. Montie felt as if he was defeated, but then right as he was going to say something, Danny told them to "SHUT UP"! The noice and rumbling stopped. They all turned towards the door, and didn't know what they were looking at.

**CHAPTER 5/ Day 2**

An enormous, bulky, metal giant loomed over the door. Six yellow glowing eyes were aimed right at them. It was huge, roughly three meters in height, and had a big pot belly. It's left arm was replaced with a drill that can go right through someone.(Judging from the stained blood, and chips all over it.) It also looked like it was used a lot, using the same observation a moment ago. It was like a fat,killing robot thing. Next to the giant robot, was a girl. Not just an ordinary child, but a demented one. She had blood stains on her green and red polka-dot dress. In her hand, was an over-sized needle that could do some serious damage in the insides. She looked to where the giant was looking at.

"What is it, Mr. Bubbles?" The creepy voice of her was scary. It sounded like she had a broken microphone in her throat.

"MMMMMMMmmmmm." It moaned back at her.

"It's okay, Mr. Bubbles, they look like they're going to be Angels." She twittered her arms up a little when she talked to the thing. They moved on after she climbed up on it's right shoulder.

After they couldn't hear or feel the "Mr. Bubbles," they sighed the biggest breath of relief in their lives. They were stunned of what had just walked in front of them. They didn't talk, until Danny snapped out of the trance that they were all in.

"What the frick was that! He exclaimed to let it linger in the air for a while. Montie and Sean heard him, and they just stared out the window in the door. None of them knew what to do.

"Angels? Mr. Bubbles? Drills? What was that all about?" Sean questioned to the others.

"I have no clue, what-so-ever." Montie said, still in the trance-like state.

"We got to find the survivors, before that-I mean-those things find them. And who knows what they can do to them." Montie confirmed.

"Yeah. Right. Like I'm going out there, with that out there, also. Nope, I am staying right here in this closet room." Danny declared.

"Fine. Montie, Let's find them-without Danny." Montie ruefully agreed with Sean, and they left Danny in the dark room, by himself.

They cautiously made their way to the commons, fearing that Mr. Bubbles would find them. They had followed the map's directions from the closet room, where they left Montie. It had been hard for them to leave him, but they did anyway. As they neared the commons, they heard shuffling of feet, human feet. Montie signaled Sean to stay put next to the wall, while Montie peered around the corner. He looked back at Sean, and he smiled.

"We found survivor's. C'mon, let's go meet them." Montie said in a whisper.

"Alright, how many are there?" Montie looked around the corner again, then looked back.

"About five, maybe more hiding. I think Ethan's there." Montie remembered his friend.

"Cool, let's go." Sean was eager to be with others.

They broke their cover, and started to walk towards the people. Some of them saw the newcomers with guns, and hesitated. Then one shouted to them, and everyone looked to where the voice was yelling at.

"Hey, guys! Over here!" An excited voice called for them. People were worried of where they had just come from. Then Montie yelled back.

"Ethan! What's going on?"

"Nothing, just waiting to get out of here." He seemed like he was pretty shaken up from what was going on. He stared at the guns that the boy's had in their hands.

"Where did you get those?" Ethan asked, as he pointed towards Montie's M4.

"Found 'em, and we are going to need them." Sean replied. He lifted his M4 up a little, remembering the things that were lurking all over the place. They walked towards the main doors.

They went through the common's locked doors. The commons were pretty big. Two people were sitting next to an open fireplace on a comfortable couch. The walls were lined with pictures of the 12th century, and the Third Crusade. The ceiling had a copper look, with a silver finish. The floors were covered with big Persian rugs from one side, to another. There were two sets of stairs that lead up to opposite directions. It was the nicest room that Sean and Montie had ever been in, or any of them, for that matter.

The doors closed, and automatically locked. Ethan told them to sit down and talk. Ethan was a tall person, that liked to be tough. He had brown hair, with brown eyes. He had been friends with Montie and Sean for years. They settled down in the couch next to the fire. Sean put his M4 against the coffee table, and put his feet up on it. Montie settled into the couch as well, keeping his gun in hand. The fire was very satisfing against their cold skin. Ethan began to talk in a formative way.

"How did you two survive those things? They were slashing at all of us, few survived..." His voice trailed on.

"How many survived?" Sean began.

"I don't know, but, we are all that's left for what we know."

"What?" Montie started remembering about his friends that he never saw after the attack.

"But where did they go? There were no bodies at the shuttle bay." Sean replied.

"There wasn't?" How? 'Cuz when we left there, those things tore through a lot of people." Ethan's lip started to tremble. He took a deep breath, then got up to go to the kitchen.

"I think they took them." Montie whispered to Sean.

"I think so too." He replied back. They looked at the fire crackling lightly in the stove, unleashing it's warmth upon them. A few minutes had passed, until Ethan came back with three coffee mugs in his hands. He set them down on the table in front of them. A chocolately smell drifted through the air, and the two boys took them. It was hot cocoa. Montie took a sip, then swallowed with relief.

"It's good, thanks, man." He said as he was gulping it down.

"No problem. Hey, have you two seen anything walking around that's not human?" Ethan was curious. Montie took a glance at Sean, who was staring right back at him. Montie turned to Ethan.

"Yeah, and it's been two times we saw something. One was another of those splicing guys. He was just walking down one of the hallways. Then Danny shot him in the chest three times. When we looked at it, Sean said that we should keep going, and..." Ethan cut him off.

"Danny? Where is he? He wasn't here a moment ago!" Ethan was full of questions at that moment of time.

"He stayed behind, after we saw Mr. Bubbles." Sean replied back.

"Mr...Bubbles?" Ethan asked. He crinkled his face, trying to figure out who Mr. Bubbles is.

The others gathered around them to hear what was going on. Out of all the people here, no one had any kind of weapon on them.

"It was like a huge balloon-guy, with some crazy little girl walking around with it. She talked to him, and mentioned something about us "becoming Angels." Montie explained to the people that sat around them quietly.

"Okay, so what do we do now?" Ethan was getting up to get another cup of relief. Sean followed him.

"We go back and get Danny. Then come straight back here." He was stirring the cocoa quickly.

"But we can't even go anywhere without getting attacked by those things out there." Ethan was getting a little nervous now.

"Don't you worry about those." Sean pulled out a Glock and handed it to Ethan.

"What do I do with this?" Ethan was looking at Sean wildly.

"I already found a gun room that we can break into." Ethan said, as he put the gun in his hands. Sean could tell that he was ready.

"That was another stop that I was planning to make." Sean finished, and went into the commons room.

"Okay, let's do this thing." Ethan said with a large grin.

"Everyone, we're going out." Sean looked at everyone with all of his confidence in him. Everyone stopped and looked up at Sean, then he continued."I gotta leave with Montie and Ethan to go find a friend, and get some weapons for all of you. Maybe even some real food instead of whatever we got here. So, for your own sake, stay hidden and keep quiet until we get back." He finished speaking to everyone then went over to get his M4. He strapped it on his back and checked his other Glock over for any flaws. He then walked over to the front doors to meet up with Ethan and Montie.

"Alright, guys, let's go get Danny."

**CHAPTER 6/ Day 2**

In the make-shift laboratory that Dr. Newton had made yesterday, he was sitting in front of his desk that was littered with scattered papers of notes, observations, experiments and such. He was using the science labs as his own office, so he had all of the equipment he needed to continue what he had post-poned.

He ran away from the shuttle bay when the attack began and headed back here in a hurry to see his test unfold. The claw-handed people, which are nick-named Splicers, were attacking the helpless children in the shuttle bay right now, and he was watching it on a computer screen with intent eyes. The guards were shooting at the Splicers as they were being torn up by their razor sharp claws. The ship that blew up had strewn shrapnel around the entire bay and cut through many of the struggling survivors trying to get to safety.

Dr. Newton noticed two different groups of children leave the bay during the fight. The first was three kids running out of there together towards the gory hallway intersection, and the other was a bigger group that barely made it out. But those ones went the opposite way.

He watched the massacre until it was over, which lasted another three minutes. His Splicers had managed to kill the soldiers that were trying to fend them off, and more came to get the students milling about. Seventy-eight bodies littered the floor after all was said and done.

Dr. Newton then got up to get some coffee. Only the emergency lights were on because he had ordered his followers to shut off all of the power in the facility to conserve their limited supplies. He only kept the oxygen recyclers and pumps on so he could let everyone breath. He thought nice for doing such a thing.

"So, boss, what are we going to do now that the monkey mens are loose?" Dr. Newton's helper, Jack, asked. He was a short man with wild brown hair and a double chin. His teeth were bucked and yellowed and breath of a dragon. He was standing near one of the testing tables that had tubes in rows with different liquids and clipboards filled with erratic notes of observations and experiments. He had been looking at some other experiments from the neighboring room and had come in to see what he was up to.

"Let them run and hide to their little hiding spots and wait for them to be discovered by my army. They will drag them back here where I can...study upon, shall I say?" Dr. Newton answered with his hands clasped, fingers twirling around as he thought of what he could with the helpless children under his scalpel.

"Ohh. I see what you want to do, but will you make them into better ones?" Jack asked.

"Yes, I suppose. But they won't be just 'better', they will become more intelligent, more agile, more bloodthirsty; more obedient." Newton said. He was finished making his coffee and was sloshing it around as he talked of his wild imaginations of his life's work.

"Great boss, that will be just great." Jack was

Newton walked back to his monitor along with Jack and together they watched the Splicers drag the bodies of their helpless victims back to the labs for some time.

"Uh, boss? Your coffee is almost gone." The doctor peered into his coffee mug and saw that he was right.

"Then go get me some already!" Newton demanded as he shoved the mug into Jack's face.

"Okay, sorry boss..." Jack took the cup from his face and turned to go refill it with some coffee. Being sad, he poured the hot liquid slowly and walked back to Newton. He gave him the cup back and went into the other room without any thanks from his master.

"All clear, let's go." Montie whispered to the others from the edge of the corner. The three of them had been backtracking for only five minutes through the dark corridors. Ethan had accepted Sean's handgun after they had an encounter with two Splicers that were just walking down a hallway they had just passed.

"Do you know how to use that, Ethan?" Sean asked. He was in the back so he could check on their six every few seconds.

"No, but I can learn how to." He replied.

"Okay, well that little button here is the magazine catch, and you press it to take out the clip. Then that lever is the safety. And all you have to do is pull the top back, aim, then pull the trigger." Sean layed down the basics as fast as he could.

"Alright, that's simple enough." Ethan said. Then they moved on from their corner and into the dark hallway.

"Here's the door, I think." Montie whispered back, only turning his head halfway.

"I don't think the door was riddled with shotgun blasts when we left." Sean pointed out. The door had at least fifty tiny holes all over it and bigger chunks missing in some places.

"Yeah." Montie was astonished by the damage.

Then there was a growling sound coming from inside the room. They stopped and listened for a few seconds and heard it again. They moved towards the door and stacked up. Sean pointed to Montie and then to the door and put up three fingers. Then he looked over to Ethan and told him to keep watch.

Sean started the countdown with his fingers and they tensed up until he put his last finger down. Montie moved in front of the door and kicked it. The wooden door broke into ten different pieces and scattered onto the floor ahead. Sean swung his M4 around and aimed it about with Montie quickly following. They looked around and finally came to a rest on some kind of creature that they had never seen before.

It was a person that had been mutated into a four-legged monstrosity. It's whole body was gaunt and skeletal with leathery skin. The two front hands had been morphed into giant blades with barbs at the ends. It was next to another one but it was dead. It looked up at them and growled a throaty growl and pounced. Sean and Montie immediately started shooting and their bullets ripped through the soft skin and flesh and stopped it in mid-air. It flung back and died instantly.

The two of them stood still for a moment until Ethan came in to see what had happened.

"Holy crap! What is that thing?" He asked the question towards Sean. Sean lowered his rifle and walked over to the dead body.

"I don't know. But it's dead for sure." He poked the stomach and the barrel almost pierced the skin; and he barely touched it.

"Man, that thing is ugly." Sean whispered to himself. Montie looked around the room for any signs of Danny and got no luck.

"Hey guys, so where's Danny at? He's not here." Ethan asked. He had the pistol in his right hand loosely hanging down. "I'm not-" Then something made him stop. The other two looked over at him from the body, staring at him with quiet mouths.

"What's wrong?" Sean asked in a whisper. Montie moved over silently to the doorway and stopped. Then a wave of screams coming from nowhere quickly filled their ears.

Then Ethan looked intently down the dark passage and saw what it was. A whole crowd of Splicers were rushing towards them at a blinding speed. They were swinging, jumping and sprinting down the hall all at the same time.

"We've got company." Ethan said as he unclicked the safety of his pistol.

"Alright guys, let's show them who they're messing with." Sean said as the trio got into a line in the hallway.

The mob was about two hundred feet away and were closing fast.

"Shoot them!" The three of them let loose of their hot lead in quick, controlled bursts down the hallway. Splicers started dropping like crazy from the hail of bullets. Sean was taking aim at their chests with semi-automatic accuracy. Montie and Ethan were shooting as fast as they could at the rushing horde of uninvited guests.

"Come on! Fall back, fall back!" Sean yelled over the gunfire and screams. He couldn't even begin to believe how many of them there were. They just came out of nowhere. Sean thought of a million questions then came back to reality.

"Let's go! Follow me!" He yelled as the three of them started to walk backwards then turned and ran away from the close mob.

They rounded a few twists and turns in almost complete darkness which forced them to turn on their flashlights that were mounted to their rifles. They took turns reloading and stopping one at a time to drop some of the faster ones catching up while Sean was figuring out where the main security room was.

"OK, the security room is dead ahead." Sean told the other two as they were layering their pursuers. Montie looked back and said,

"Well let's go! We can't hold 'em off forever!" He pulled back and tapped Ethan's shoulder to signal him to follow. Sean emptied his clip as soon as the others ran past him and slapped in another and quickly followed.

They sprinted the rest of the two-hundred feet to a checkpoint that the room was covering. Ethan got to the door first and tried to open it. He had no luck. He started to panic and shook the handle furiously.

"Guys, the door is locked." He looked over to them. Sean came up to it and dug into his front left pocket. A few seconds later he had a key in his hand and put it into the doorknob. Montie was crouched by then and was mowing the enemy down with his M4 carbine. The crowd was halfway down the corridor.

Sean twisted his wrist clockwise and opened the door with a kick.

"Get in!" Sean told Montie. Montie cocked his head back and ran towards them. He was only seven feet from Sean when a tentacle wrapped around his waist, and what appeared to be in slow motion, Montie looked up at him and nodded. Then he lost his grip on the rifle as he was jerked back into the midst of the crowd. Sean was stunned at the sight.

Then everything came back to him once again, and turned into the door, where Ethan was standing in a jaw-dropped awe. They pushed the armored door shut, locked it and moved a desk in front of it to help keep them from breaking in. Then Sean slid onto the floor and sat there in silence. Ethan did the same across from him. Sean just thought how he didn't even scream.

**CHAPTER 7/ Day 3**

Dr. Newton thrived over his idea of letting loose about one hundred Splicers to track down those kids wandering the passages. He had watched the entire event unfold from start to finish on his computer and marveled at how well three children had gotten away from so many of his Splicers and lived. But that was the only thing. Not all of them were so lucky to escape. One had been captured by one of his newest creations, the Licker.

The Licker had been the result of a 'failed' experiment that had been killed and thrown away...only to come back alive as a more powerful creature. It has a long stretchy tongue that it can shoot out around fifty feet, wrap around an object, and haul it back to the Licker. Ever since it ran away and roamed in the facility, the virus inside controlling it mutated it's genetics so it could self re-produce every twenty-three to thirty-six hours. The original one, however, escaped two months ago, leaving it plenty of time to grow into the second most largest population on the planet; Splicers being number one.

So the Licker came back with the child wrapped around in it's tongue. He had Jack strip the kid of his weapons and ammo and had him locked up for about six hours now. He wanted to interrogate the boy to find out if he would rat out his friends' locations, but then he decided not to until he woke up by himself.

He had only two hours of sleep because of reasons he didn't even know. At around six in the morning he decided to get out of his stiff bed and get some coffee. He had been living on the stuff for the past few months now, and his body was shot from fatigue and lack of sleep.

He went over to the coffee pot and went to grab the beans and noticed that the bag was empty. Angry that Jack hadn't replenished his supply, he strode over to Jacks' quarters on the opposite side of the secure hallway and knocked on his door until it opened. Jack stood there with no shirt on and only in his soiled undergarments with the door in hand wide open.

"Yeah, boss?" He stood there, waiting for the doctor to say something.

"Why have you not filled up the bag of coffee beans yet?" Jack opened his mouth, but Newton cut him off before he could say anything.

"You know what happens when you forget to do your chores, don't you? You should, because of what happened last time, right?" The doctor was furious by then, when he heard someone yelling for help down the hallway where the child was being held. He instantly dropped his anger and just handed Jack the bag and told him to bring him some coffee and something to eat.

He walked down the hallway to the second door on the right and went in. The child was locked in handcuffs to a metal ring above his head and had been standing up the entire night. The boy looked at him and started to ask why he was being held, when he introduced himself.

"Hello. Do you remember me? Because I certainly remember you with your run-in with my Splicers." He walked over to a nearby chair against the opposite wall from Montie.

"Oh, let me think. You are Montie, am I wrong?" Dr. Newton asked.

"Yeah, I remember you. You said you were going to be our guide for the field trip. Then we get attacked by those Splicers you said, and you run off. Some guide." Montie said in a strong tone. His legs were really sore from standing for hours on end. He just wanted to sit.

"Yes, well things don't always go according to plan, as you might be familiar with now. Which brings me to the point of interest of this conversation." Dr. Newton said with an ever-so-modest voice. He wanted to know why they have been going through the facility aimlessly. Which is where he was stumped; They would only go out if they had a good reason to risk their lives on, and he wanted to know what that reason was.

"Why were you and your friends wandering through the hallways? I mean you youngsters would have some sort of reason, right?"

"Yeah, but I wouldn't tell you for anything."

"Now, now. We don't want an attitude, do we? I just want to know why you were wandering this facility. Is that so much to ask such a person like you?" Dr. Newton was already getting impatient.

"I'm not gonna say anything to nark my friends out for you." Montie lowered his head and added softly, "Even though I don't know where they are."

Dr. Newton then got up and walked to the door. He stopped and said:

"Then I will just have to find them myself, if that's how it's going to be." He then turned the knob and the door was shut a moment later. Montie finally looked up and thought of the others.

**CHAPTER 8/ Day 3**

The two boys were laying on the security room floor, Ethan sprawled out and Sean tucked into himself. They had been asleep since they narrowly escaped from the rushing hordes of Splicers that had taken Montie from them. They eventually left after finding no way to get inside the secure room, so it was quiet once again.

Sean opened his eyes halfway and they fluttered there for a bit until they adjusted to the lights up above. Even though there was very limited light sources, there was enough to see where you were walking. He sat up and saw Ethan still sound asleep in front of him. He looked around and saw a few low tables and another door. He thought of what had happened the previous night and shuddered at the thought of Montie being pulled away into the crowd of darkness. He stopped and swore to himself that he would get everyone else off of the planet alive.

He sat there in silence grieving over the fact that his best friend and cousin had been killed in this God-forsaken place. He took a deep breath and pushed all of those thoughts in the back of his head. He had to keep rational and clear-minded if he wanted to stay alive. He was determined to keep his promise to himself.

He slowly stood up, stretched, and walked over to the locked door. He peered through the rectangular-shaped window in the middle of the door and he knew that he had found their objective, the armory room.

Sean got excited for only a second for he thought of how they would get inside the room. He hurried over to Ethan, who was still asleep, and shook him awake. Ethan suddenly opened his eyes and sat straight up.

"What happened? What's wrong?" He quickly asked.

"Dude, I found the armory room door! It's right there." Sean pointed behind him. Ethan stood up and walked over to the sealed door. He peered in and looked back at Sean.

"What about Montie? Did he...make it?" Sean just stood there, with a blank stare on his face. A full ten seconds later, Sean finally opened his mouth,

"I, I don't think so. Those things took him and...well you saw it too, what do you think?" Sean was struggling to keep his wits about him, but he couldn't do that much longer. Eventually he was going to break, people can't hold stuff in like that forever.

"Yeah, I know then." Ethan said, then he lowered his head. Sean went over to him and looked at the closed door.

"Well, we still got a mission to do, and we are going to get off this rock alive, with the rest back in the commons. No matter what it takes, no matter how much it takes, we will still get out of here alive. I promise you that."

"Okay, let's get this door open." Ethan said after taking in what Sean had said. He started to look around for any keys or crowbars.

"That's what I was thinking." They searched around the whole room and found a set of keys in one of the desk drawers.

Sean had the keys and was trying every single one to find a match to the lock. After about three minutes, he finally got the right key and turned the knob open.

"Yes, I got it." He opened the door with his M4 slung to the right shoulder and Glock at the ready. They moved in and secured the armory room. It was clear, of course, because it had been locked tight until they got there, but it never hurts to check.

"Uh, there's only half the guns in here than there should be." Sean said curiously.

"Why would it be?" Ethan was checking out the lockers filled with ammunition and grenades.

"I don't know why, but I do know that we should take whatever we need, and get out of here."

The armory had about thirty guns total. Which consisted of six Steyr Aug's, four L85's, thirteen M4 carbines, five Spas 12 shotguns, and two RPG 7's. Most of them were laying on the floor scattered about.

"Well at least there's ammo here." Ethan pointed out. That was true. There were at least eighteen fragmentation grenades left in a locker that were in working shape, and the ammo, at least three hundred 5.56mm rounds, 47 12-gauge slugs, and 4 rocket-propelled grenades.

"Cool, let's get these equipment bags filled with everything and head back to the others." Sean said as he grabbed two military-issue rucksacks from the floor. He handed one to Ethan and started picking up some of the M4's next to him. Ethan just dumped all the ammo into his.

After they were done five minutes later, they were both easily carrying fourty-five pounds of equipment, not good for their mobility.

"Alright, do we have everything we need?" Sean asked. He adjusted the shoulder straps to where they were tight so it wouldn't go up and down if or when they needed to run. Ethan did the same.

"Yeah, I got all the ammo in this place."

"Good, let's get out of here." They headed out.

The two boys walked out of the armory, moved the barricade out of the way, and Sean opened the door quietly. He peered through the crack and saw nothing but a body-littered hallway and darkness. It was all clear. Sean saw the rifle that Montie had used, on the ground. He checked both ways for enemies and jogged over to it. Sean slung his M4 over his back and on top of the rucksack to where it was horizontal. He knelt down and gently picked it up from the hard marblized floor and decided to use it in honor of his fallen cousin. He looked back at Ethan and he just nodded grimly.

They took a different path to get back to the commons so they could avoid any potential threats that might be lurking around. They were even running at a brisk pace with no stealth whatsoever. They passed a few groups of Splicers, but quickly took them out with no hesitation and a lot of brutality. Some were shot straight in the face or even in the chest or stomach, stabbed and sliced up by razor-sharp combat knives or snapped bones from hand-to-claw combat.

It took them about twenty minutes to get back to the commons, which wasn't in good shape at all. Fires were raging from inside and windows shattered and doors broken. The whole place was a disaster. The teenagers couldn't believe the scene in front of them.

"What happened? Where is everyone?" Ethan said. They just stood there in one spot, unable to register what had happened.

"I don't know. I don't think they survived..." Sean drifted into a sub-conscious meltdown. He started blabbering to himself of how it was all his falt. He staggered over to the fire and fell to his knees just ten feet from the front doors.

"It's all my fault. It's all my fault. I told them to stay here and wait for us, and they die. They all died from my judgement, and it's all my fault." His lower lip started to tremble and he just sat there. Ethan came to his left side and started to comfort him.

"No, this isn't your fault, Sean. You didn't know that this would happen, I didn't even expect this. But you know, they didn't complain about staying here and not going with us. You know why?"

"Because they were scared of leaving here?" Sean sobbed. Ethan exhaled deeply.

"No. They trusted you, Sean. They trusted your judgement as a leader. They trusted you as their leader. If they were still alive, they would have said the exact same thing to you, man."

"Yeah, that's it, 'if' they were alive." Sean kept staring at his knees. He didn't know what to say or do, he just wanted to fall out of existence, leave everything behind for it to settle on it's own.

"We can't do anything now to help them. But what we can help is us getting out of here alive, and you're still keeping that promise, right?" Ethan put his hand on Sean's shoulder.

"I might have failed them, but I'm not failing you, too." Sean slowly rose up and added, "Let's find a way out of here."

"That's the spirit, buddy. Come on, let's go." Ethan said as he spun around and took point. Sean looked back, and quickly followed.

**CHAPTER 9/ Day 3**

Montie had been standing for almost fourty eight hours now, and his legs were getting to feel like nothing now. He hadn't eaten or drank anything since he had left the commons with Ethan and Sean in search of Danny and the weapons room. He was completely exhausted and sleep-deprived. If he didn't get anything in his stomach and some good sleep soon, he would eventually die. But that's what everyone thinks of him already, dead. He had just realized this after counting all of the spots on the ceiling that appered to be moving if he stared at them for too long. He was really in a state of nothingness.

He wondered how he would escape from this place and meet up with Sean and the others. But he hasn't thought much of it in his dazed state. Get out, find Sean, and escape the planet was his plan, but he didn't know how to even get out of the very room he was in.

"Maybe they will find me here and me out." Montie doubted it, but he was willing to believe it.

"I'm so hungry..." Montie barely even got the words out in a whisper. He was getting weaker by the minute, and had no chance of recovering. He heard footsteps and muffled voices coming from down the hallway and were getting closer. They stopped at the other side of the door and he heard an angry voice yelling at another individual. The door suddenly opened and Dr. Newton walked in along with two well-armed soldiers equipped with Aug's and fully black combat armor, with the addition of helmets that cover their entire heads.

The doctor walked towards Montie with an angry face on him and stopped two feet away from him.

"Montie Miller, you are going to come with us." That's all he said, and he turned on his heels and walked straight out. He gave the soldiers a nod. The men then slung their Aug's out of the way and converged on him. One uncuffed his hands and the other slapped new ones on him as soon as they were down. One then told him good night and punched him square in the face and Montie was out cold with a broken nose.

Montie woke with a massive headache and nose bleeding fiercely. The blood was starting to puddle on the floor in front of him. He had been dragged out of the cell and into what appeared to be an office. It was very dirty and quite dank. The two soldiers were standing by the door and just stood there silently watching him. Dr. Newton was sitting on a comfortable desk chair and was looking through a file that was resting on his lap. After a few moments the doctor looked at Montie and set the files on the desk.

"So I see that you have exceptional physical capabilities under your belt." Montie just glared back at him trying to hide the pain from his nose. The handcuffs held his arms in front of him which enabled him to move his nose back in place. Montie did so with a swift jolt to the right and got the satisfying crack from the cartilage snapping back into formation.

"And I see that you know how to take care of yourself under bad conditions." Dr. Newton added to the file on his desk. He had a pen that was in the breast pocket of his labcoat. He set it down and had the look of the word 'serious' on his face.

"I'm going to tell you something that you already know, and something you don't know, Mr. Miller. Which do you want to hear first?" The doctor asked. Montie thought about it for awhile and eventually came to an answer.

"What do I already know?" He asked.

"Well, you already know that your friends got swarmed after you were taken hostage, right?" Montie nodded.

"I'm going to come out and say it as it is: They are still alive and well, Montie Miller, and they don't seem too fazed about your 'death'. Almost like they don't really care. Does that say something about them?" The doctor was trying to break him.

"No, they know I'm still alive, I know it! They wouldn't leave me here alive, I know they won't. Sean is my cousin, and I know him well enough that he won't just leave me behind in this place. They're looking for me right now!" The doctor was getting the information he needed.

"Where do you think they would try to find you? Here? No, they wouldn't even know where to begin if they knew you were alive. Face it, they aren't going to find you, and if they even got close to here, they would be gunned down and disposed of. End of story. Don't you wish that you can take vengeance on everything? Do what you want and not worry about any consequences afterwards? Doesn't that sound fun?" The doctor was about to snap the trap.

He thought about that question with savoring thoughts and desires. It was either that, or just go home. And he did want to go home right then.

"What are you trying to say?"

"I'm trying to say that I have the power to give you something that your friends can't ever give you. It's called a Plasmid. A genetic enhancement that could give you the powers you've always wanted. It could give you superhuman strength, or pyrokinesis or anything else you want. But it comes at the price that you pick this and not your friends."

"What are the consequences of getting one?" Montie was very interested in what these Plasmids were. He thought that if he could get one, then he would have a better chance at escaping.

"I would like to see them in person." Dr. Newton thought about it while keeping eye contact with the prisoner.

"Very well, let's go take a visit to our Plasmid stocks, shall we gentlemen?" The soldiers took Montie by the back collar and hauled him off towards the doctor, who was already halfway out of the room.

They strode down the corridor and came to a stop in front of a glass cabinet with a lock on the door. The doctor reached into his leg pocket and pulled out a key card. He flashed it around the lock and like magic it unlocked itself. Montie saw that and all he could do was stare in awe.

Newton opened the door and ordered one of the soldiers to take off Montie's restraints. He lifted his hands and they were shortly after were free. Montie rubbed his wrists and his stomach growled in hunger. The doctor was sorting through what sounded like glass bottles. He took a few steps forward and the doctor held up a finger to signal him to stop.

He did something to make a machine start up and Montie heard liquids flowing. Newton got a look of satisfaction on his face and brushed his hands off.

"I'm sure you're the type that likes fire, am I right?" He asked.

Montie just looked at the cabinet then at the doctor.

"Yeah, I'd like to catch some on you too." He answered with a smirk.

"I know you probably do, but let's face it, you're with me now, and you can't get away. So you just have to get used to living here real fast or you might just end up being Splicer food. Got it?" Newton said. Montie finally gave in and agreed.

"Fine...you win." He put his head down and stared at his shoes.

Newton turned off the machine and put the solution in a giant needle in the shape of a sub-machine gun. He walked over to Montie and put his left hand on his shoulder with the needle behind his back.

"Good, then you shall become one of mine." Montie looked up as the doctor plunged a giant needle into his neck and everthing started to spin.

"Don't worry, the pain will sub-side shortly." The doctor's voice was deep and slow. Montie's eyes rolled back into his head and he fell to the ground.

**CHAPTER 10/ Day 3**

A bullet flew straight into the skull of an oncoming Splicer and made it collapse to the ground as others were rushing over the body towards Sean and Ethan as they were dropping them like flies in a bug zapper. The boys had developed a plan to get off the planet. They figured that in order to find a ship that was still in one piece, they first needed to find the control tower that had managed all of the shipping vessels that came to and fro the facility. From there, they would hopefully find out how to get to one, and launch off towards home.

That plan was made up six hours ago, and they were still on the move. They had found two sets of black suits in the armory with tons of tactical pouches and pockets and harnesses, with some Kevlar body armor and completely black helmets. They looked like the guards that had fended off the first Splicers when they first got here. They also had to drop all of the extra weapons so they weren't weighed down so much. Sean still stuck with his M4 and also Montie's M4 was on his back, and Ethan with an L85 in hand and Spas 12 secured to his back. They were ready for war.

"I've already gone through half my ammo, man. They just don't seem to give up." Sean said through his helmet's communication transceiver. They had little microphones built into the helmets so they didn't have to yell when they were in the middle of a firefight.

"Really? I've only gone through like five clips now." Ethan said as he rifle-butted one in the face and shot it when it fell to the ground. Blood spattered all over his left leg.

"Well, whoop-de-freakin-do-dah. C'mon, let's mop up the rest of these creeps and keep going. I think we're almost there, hopefully."

"Alright, I'm following you." Ethan acknowledged. They took out the rest of their attackers and walked over the sea of bodies that lay on the floor and started to run down the hall.

"So what if we can't find a ship that can get us out of here?" Ethan asked. They slowed a little so they catch their breath while still moving at a brisk pace.

"We have been over this already, dude. We will find one, I promised that, remember?" They had gone through the same conversation three times before and each time it went the same way. Sean had been promising him that they will get off the planet, but even he had doubts in the back of his mind.

The pair jogged on for about fifteen more minutes until they heard a rumbling noice. They stopped and hugged the walls, weapons at the ready towards an open archway that led into a massive atrium with a very high ceiling. Sean motioned Ethan over to the other side of the archway and peered out.

The room was actually two stories tall and as big as a football field. Pillars jutted out from the top to bottom of the room, big glass chandeliers hung from the ceiling and there was a big thing standing in front of the door they had to get through. Sean immediately noticed what it was: The Big Daddy that had scared the living crap out of them when they were in the supply closet. Even the little girl was still with it. He noticed that they were staring at something on the ground and the girl was jabbing at it with an over-sized needle.

"What the heck is that thing?" Ethan asked as he went over to the other side of the entrance.

"It's what we call a Big Daddy, or a Driller for this type." Sean just wondered in his mind why he knew that but stored that thought in the back of his head.

"Why is it called a Driller? Is it because it has a big drill for it's arm?" Ethan was getting worried.

"Yeah, and there's also a kind that has a giant gauss cannon mounted to it's arm instead." Again with the smarts about something I don't even know anything about. Sean just thought to himself.

"Wow, then I'm glad we found this one then." Ethan rejoiced silently.

"Well we still have to find a way to get through that door that he's blocking, so don't get too excited." Sean pointed out in his mic.

"Oh really? Well I'm staying up here until he leaves, 'cause I don't want to be mashed potatoes anytime soon." Ethan was trying to get some humor in so he would feel a little better about- Then Sean smiled in his helmet and rounded the corner; shooting.

Sean shot the Driller until he ran out of ammo in his clip, then he reloaded while he jumped down the stairs and landed in a crouch. Ethan soon broke his cover and took up a firing position on the balcony. He started to fire on the giant as Sean went around to the side to flank. The Big Daddy's six eyes flared a deep red and to Sean that meant he was probably angry that they were trying to shoot him.

It flung it's arms to the side to protect the Little Sister from the incoming hail of bullets that did nothing to penetrate it's metal armor. After the girl got behind a pillar, the thing actually started to steam out it's top like an old steam engine locomotive train.

Seeing that, Ethan took cover to reload and regain his senses. But as he got done pulling the cocking lever back, he saw a Splicer ten feet away from him just staring back. He didn't have time to aim so he got up and fired from the hip. One bullet managed to miss it's target and go right into a big gas tank inside the wall behind it and the thing blew up. The Splicer was thrown into Ethan and together they fell off the balcony and into the floor fifteen feet below. But Ethan was smart enough that he moved the Splicer underneath himself so it took the full force of the two of them landing, which pretty much crushed it's chest.

The Big Daddy rushed over to Ethan as he was struggling to get up so Sean shot at it from behind to get it's attention. His plan worked which surprised him because he didn't think it would, so he had no back-up plan to try and get away from it. So he just kept on shooting at the emotionless eyes that were pointed towards him. But it just kept rushing at him until it suddenly got struck by electricity and it stopped dead in it's tracks.

Sean looked around to see where the bolt of lightning came from and tracked it over towards the other side of the room where Danny was standing.

"If you want to dance, then you gotta dance with me first." He put his hand up and motioned for it to come over. The robot turned around to face him and started to charge with blinding speed towards it's new target. Danny just stood his ground until they were three feet away and he put his hand up and an electrical shockwave bursted outward and sent the Big Daddy flying then it landed in a heap.

"Danny! It's so good to see you!" Ethan yelled. He took off his helmet and welcomed his friend. Sean came over and took his helmet off as well. They were sweating like no other from the engagement.

"It's good to see you two." Danny said.

"Yeah. How did you do that? You like electricuted it to death with your hand!"

"Well, after waiting for you and Montie for an hour, I got bored so I went to go find you guys and got lost. That's when I found a vending machine filled with things called Plasmids." The boys got confused looks from that and Danny explained what they do and how they worked.

"So that's what it is, a Plasmid?" Sean asked with a figurative tone.

"Yeah, and I got one more, but it didn't say what it does so I didn't inject myself."

"Well I'll give it a try." Sean volunteered. They looked at him and Danny handed it over. Sean took the vial and looked into it. He wondered how he would use it.

"How do I inject it or whatever?" Danny seemed to regret something then said he would need a needle.

"Wait, that little girl has one. Where is she?" Sean looked around the giant room for any signs for her and saw her kneeling down next to the dead Driller and she was crying. He noticed the needle on the ground.

"Hey, there's one." He pointed over to it and the trio went over to the little girl. They stopped a few feet away from her and Sean carefully went over and scooped up the needle. The little girl looked up and instantly went into a flaming rage.

She jumped up and pounced Sean as Ethan shot her in the throat with his L85. She choked and held her neck until she crumpled to the ground, dead. Sean looked over and nodded. Danny took the needle from Sean and inserted the vial into it and handed it to Sean.

"When this stuff goes inside of you, it will knock you unconscience, so I would wait until we get somewhere safe." Ethan agreed.

"Yeah, I really don't feel like hauling you on my shoulder for a long time."

"Haha, but I would like to." Sean said back. They laughed together and went silent for a moment.

"Hey, we made a plan to get out of here so we better get going before more Splicers or Big Daddys show up." Sean put the needle in some straps on his back and they started to the door.

"What is the plan, guys?" Danny asked. They heard some howling from the distance and Sean looked at him and said,

"I'll explain along the way." And they locked the door behind them.

** CHAPTER 11/ Day 4**

Montie woke up from what seemed like a dream. He sat up and noticed he was on a bed that was made from a table and a pillow that smelled like it had never been washed before. The doctor was sitting at another desk reading some kind of book on the other side of the dark room. He had a major migraine.

The doctor saw that he was awake and put the book down and got up.

"Nice of you to wake up at an interesting time, Mr. Miller." The doctor said.

"Yeah, well I liked it better when I was asleep. What did you do to me?" Montie asked. He rubbed the back of his head softly. The doctor took a deep breath and started talking.

"I injected you with the "Incineration" and "Electro Bolt" Plasmids, along with something else that will help me keep a tighter leash on your back-talking and your other childish ways. So let's just say that you're under my control now." Montie looked at him with a confused look about him, and the doctor saw it.

"In time, Mr. Miller, in time you will make sense what's happening around here. But first, we gotta go try out your newly acquired powers on some test subjects. Please come with me." The doctor turned around and started towards the door, but Montie just stayed where he was and stared at him.

"I'm not going anywhere with you anymore. I'm staying right here and getting some sleep." He put his head on the pillow and closed his eyes. The doctor stopped and cocked his head sideways and asked him; "Will you kindly come along with me, Mr. Miller?" As soon as Dr. Newton said that, Montie sat straight up, almost like a robot, slid off the table, and walked over to await further orders. The doctor smiled and continued to go through the hall. Montie had been brain-washed.

The boys ran through a short hallway and to the left up three flights of stairs, and finally they reached the control tower. Sean had explained the plan and made sure Danny didn't have any troubles or concerns with it. The door was a rough rectangular shape and had integrated luminescent blue lights glowing through the designs that ran horizontally through the door. They approached it and tried the button that opens it. There was no luck.

"Hey Danny, try shocking the door to see if it'll open like that." Sean suggested. Ethan was standing next to Danny and agreed.

"Okay. Well move then, so I don't hit you guys." Danny summoned up his Plasmid that was raging inside of his body, still trying to permanently attach itself to his DNA. He raised both of his hands and shocked the door with a giant bolt of electricity. The giant door immediately slid open and revealed the room that it held. Danny looked over and grinned to Sean. Then they hurried inside and sweeped the room for any potential hostiles.

There were many computer monitors lined up together mounted to the wall above a long table that was littered with papers. Sean asked Ethan if he could guard the stairs again while he and Danny looked for a way to their escape shuttle. Sean slung his rifle onto his shoulder and started typing on a keyboard that he presumed was connected to one of the cameras. He was typing as fast as he could with the least amount of spelling errors as possible and suddenly a monitor switched it's view.

Danny looked over and saw what Sean had done. He had logged onto the security feed so they could control which cameras they wanted to look through. Sean switched through the feeds and came to a stop at a picture that held what they had been wanting to find: The shuttle that would get them off the planet.

"Check where that is, and let's get there." Danny came over and told Sean.

"Yeah, I'm trying to...okay, got it. Let's move." Sean unslung his M4 and shot some of the electronics in the room; mostly communications equipment and monitors. They headed out the door and down the stairs and were ambushed by a pack of Lickers that were just waiting for them to come down. Danny shocked two at the same time whilst Sean and Ethan shot the rest until the ambushers were all dead. They continued down the long stretch of the corridor and again they were in a maze of hallways swarming with Splicers and more Lickers along with a few Big Daddys.

The route they needed to take was pretty short if you didn't include all the twists and turns and locked doors in almost every hallway. It would have taken at least an hour for them to get through it, but they had found an opening to the ventilation shafts in the ceiling, making it much easier to get there.

"Danny, you take point. Ethan?" Sean stood next to a ladder he had pulled over to the opening.

"Yeah? Oh, I'll go second." He started to climb up the ladder as a whole swarm of Splicers and a pair of Big Daddys rounded the corner and charged.

"Go! Go, I'll hold 'em off!" Sean yelled. He opened fire on the nearest Splicer and backed up until he was against the wall. They kept rushing in and Sean kept shooting.

He shot one in the chest and his clip was empty. He looked in fear and shock as he was surrounded by Splicers and only one way out. He closed his eyes and waited for them to get him. Then the sound of a rocket being launched filled his ears. Sean opened his eyes and watched the RPG blow almost everything up right in front of him. He heard Ethan's voice in his ear to run. He saw a gap in between the wounded Drillers and bolted towards the door. The gunfire and zaps of lightning slowly faded as he ran. When he could hear nothing else besides his own breathing, he stopped.

He looked back and saw nothing. He keyed his mic and tried to get a hold of Ethan, but he had no luck. He took off his helmet and inspected it. There was a scorch mark on the back, which he figured that took out his comms. He tossed it aside, reloaded his M4, and figured he could try to link up with them at the shuttle bay. But they only had one map; and he gave it to Danny.

All he could think now, was at least two would get out alive then just none.

"It could have been four, or ten, or even seventy..." Sean talked aloud. He layed down his M4 next to him as he slid down the wall and sat there, head in between his knees. He just wanted to sit here until he starved to death. Then, out of nowhere, he picked up his M4 and shouldered it. He wasn't going down this easy.

"There's still a job to do." He said confidently. So he sprinted to the unknown beyond.

**CHAPTER 12/ Day 4**

A Splicer had been walking around an oval room for some time as Sean was scoping out what seemed to be some makeshift base from a high perch in a tiny crevice. He had seen some soldiers walk in the double doors around thirty feet away from his position with no problem from the Splicers. He wondered why they hadn't attacked each other on site. That led him to another mystery: Do they have an agreement to not kill one another, or was it something deep? He didn't know, all he was really focused on was what is the other side of the doors.

He knew he couldn't just jump down and bust in, guns ablazing, so he figured he might go in silent and try out his combat knife for once. After thinking out what he'll do, he remembered about the silencer that Danny had given out to him and Montie on day one. He pulled it out and secured it onto his remaining Glock on his left thigh holster. After re-thinking out his plan, Sean climbed down from the perch when the Splicers weren't looking, and pulled out his six-inch stainless steel blade. He snuck around towards the entrance and stopped behind a large pillar. He whistled loudly for the Uglies to hear. They turned around and looked at the pillar with confused looks. The nearest one started walking slowly towards Sean, and he waited for it to get close enough.

Sean peered out from his cover just enough he could see the hook on the Splicer's right hand. He readied his knife and as the Ugly closed in at the seven foot mark, Sean sprung from cover and leaped at his victim. The Splicer, too stunned to react, got a throatful of knife and fell backwards as Sean whipped out his silenced Glock with his left hand, and fired half the clip into the other's torso; all in one fluid motion. He yanked the bloodied knife out and cleaned it with the rags the Splicer had on. He listened for any signs of alarm, but there weren't any. He then walked over to the doors and put his ear to the surface; nothing. He tried the knob and it was surprisingly unlocked.

Sean checked his gear over, reloaded, and readied his Glock at the door. With a deep breath, he kicked the door as hard as he could and they swung open. He scanned the room left and right and stopped at the right hand corner. What he saw made his heart lurch.

There he was, standing there in the doorway, pistol in hand, and staring directly at Montie and Dr. Newton. They were just sitting at a table together like nothings happening. Sean was both confused and shocked at the sight of them. So many questions swarmed into his mind and he pushed them to another side of his thoughts.

He regained his focus.

"Montie? What are you doing here with the doctor?" He slowly eased his way to the right side of the door. The doctor got up and started towards Sean, but he motioned him to stay put. Newton sighed and started talking,

"Well it's good to see you too, Mr. Reed. I'm actually very surprised you made it through the facility and all the way over here."

"Yeah? Well I had help getting here, but we got separated on the way to...our next destination." Sean replied.

"Is that so? It's just too bad they won't be saying 'good-bye' to you now. Montie: Would you kindly kill this pest?" Montie immediately stood up and walked over to Sean, now pointing his Glock at Montie. The doctor ordered him to kill him slowly, and with that, he left.

Seconds later, a shock of electricity forced Sean to let go of his Glock and let it fall to the ground. Montie's hands were flaming and electrified at the same time, and he was running towards Sean at a frightening speed. Sean rolled away just in time for his cousin to run straight into the wall and through it. As he got up, a fireball flew by his face, singing the hairs off his lip and cheeks. He flipped a table over on it's side and took refuge behind it. Scanning for an escape route, Sean found the way the doctor went through just moments ago.

Another flaming ball of electricity whizzed over his head and crashed into the wall eight feet away, creating an enormous scorch mark that caught on fire a second after Sean sprinted towards the door. Montie quickly followed. Sean pulled a fragmentation grenade from his harness and pulled the pin. He waited until he rounded a corner leading to even more corridors, he chucked it over his shoulder. After three seconds of hard sprinting, and an explosion later, he stopped to catch his breath and see if Montie was still following him.

Sean thought again, pulled out his combat knife, and started running towards Montie. When Montie came around the corner, Sean tackled him to the ground and they scuffled around a bit until Sean finally had the chance; He positioned his knife to where the hilt was facing toward Montie, and struck him as hard as he could in the head. Montie went limp immediately.

Sean sat up to his knees and checked his pulse: still strong. That was a good thing because he didn't want to kill his own friend, and he had a theory. Montie was under some kind of trance from Dr. Newton, so the only way to break that state of mind is to kill the source. He had to go find Newton, regroup with his friends, and find that shuttle...all the while carrying Montie around with him.

He started dragging him when he heard shouts and movement from the room they were just in. He tried the nearest door and luckily, it was unlocked. Sean dragged Montie's body in and quietly shut the door and locked it as a whole fire team came around the corner and investigated the blast from his grenade.

"Think it was that kid the doctor was using?" One soldier asked.

"Well, who else could have done this? C'mon, let's keep moving." Another said.

Sean waited until he couldn't hear them anymore then peeked out the door window for anything. When he was satisfied, he turned around to look at what was in the dark room. Nothing, save for some empty cabinets and deserted Chinese food on one of the tables. He then realized that he hadn't eaten anything in over fourty hours. It was just now starting to take effect on him, along with a lack of sleep.

He set up Montie to where he was leaning against a wall and Sean sat across from him trying not to doze off. As he was sitting in silence, he thought of home and his family, and his life at school, when everything was just fine...and before he could catch himself, Sean drifted into a deep sleep.

**CHAPTER 13/ Day 5**

As Ethan was just getting up, he stretched his limbs and looked around. He found himself looking at a round table with lots of vending machine food and drinks piled up on it and Danny munching on some bite-sized cookies. He stood up and wandered about their barricaded breakroom. He then sat down and started on a bag of cheese crackers while slurping down some carbonated drink.

"So what do we do now?" Danny started. Ethan finishing chewing and said, "Well, since Sean is somewhere else now, and we have the map to this place, I think we either try to find him, or we just try to find that ship he was talking about."

"Okay... What do you want to do?"

"Well, we just can't leave him here after all that we've gone through. I think we should find him, then hurry back and fly that ship out of here."

"Or we could split up. I'll find the ship and you get Sean." Danny suggested.

"Then whoever doesn't have the map will get lost! Great idea!" Ethan said in sarcasm.

Danny suddenly got up and searched the cabinets for something. After looking through the first three, he found and took out one piece of lined paper. He set it down along with two pens on the table. Ethan looked at them and thought that they had to draw another map: He was right. Danny pulled out the real map, unfolded it, set it under the paper, and started to trace the section that they were in.

"Good idea, Danny." Ethan chugged the rest of his drink and threw it across the room into a trash can.

"Score." He muttered to himself.

After five minutes of silence, Danny was finished with his replica map. He held it up and compared it to the other. Almost identical.

"Thanks to myself for doing this so much at home." Danny said to himself. He handed it to Ethan who neatly folded and stuffed it into his right breast pouch. Danny went over to the door and took everything out of the barricade until it was clear. He turned to Ethan and asked, "You ready?" Ethan pulled his helmet over his head and secured it.

"Yeah, let's rock." He clicked his rifle's safety off.

"Sean! Sean?" A mysterious voice echoed through his ears. He tried to pinpoint where the sounds were coming from, but he had no luck. He heard a chronic droning sound that got louder and louder. He tried to open his mouth and respond, but couldn't.

"Sean! Wake up!" He suddenly opened his eyes and jolted upward to see Montie staring right at him. He was smiling like it was Christmas morning. He thought he was dreaming.

"What...?" Sean was shocked to see Montie awake and well. He stood up with his help and shook his head to clear his mind.

"How did you get those plasmids?" Sean asked. He looked up at Montie with sleepy eyes. Montie thought back to how the doctor had tricked him into getting them injected into his neck. He explained the whole story to Sean, who in return, just nodded and listened. After Montie was finished, he asked where the others were.

"We were separated," Sean said, "Ethan and I had run into Danny after fighting a Driller. Then we found the control tower and the shuttle bay we need to get to...then we got attacked by Splicers and an army of Splicers. We tried to escape into the vents, but I didn't make it in time. Then I just ran away and found you."

"I saw that you got a plasmid too." Montie observed. Sean used his telekinesis to pick up his rifle, and brought it over to him. He pulled it from mid-air and grinned at Montie: "Yup." He grinned right back at him.

"So what do we do now?" Montie asked. Sean considered this for a moment.

"I don't really know." He walked around the room, thinking.

"We still have Ethan and Danny out there. Probably trying to make their way to the ship." Montie suggested aloud in his thoughts. Sean stopped in mid stride and turned towards Montie.

"Can you handle yourself out there on your own? 'Cos we could split up and find both the shuttle and them." Montie nodded his head.

"Yeah, I can. I've got these plasmids now, I think that's good enough. What do you want to do?"

Sean checked his M4 and said that he wanted to go find the other two.

"Do you want this Glock?" Sean asked. Montie replied by taking it from his offering hand. He stuffed it in his back pocket.

"Okay, I'll go find the ship while you go get them. But be back as fast as you can; I don't want to be stuck there for too long." Montie ordered.

"Yeah, me too. Oh, here's the map for the facility. I've marked the general location of the shuttle. Just search around in that area." Sean pointed out.

Montie went over to the door and opened it. He scanned the hallways and looked back at Sean.

"Be careful out there, man." Sean stared at him for five seconds and finally answered him.

"See you on the other side."

Montie nodded solemnly and left in a brisk jog. Sean stood there a moment, and after collecting his thoughts, left as well.

**CHAPTER 14/ DAY 5**

"Why didn't your soldiers find him afterwards?" Dr. Newton asked the armor-clad sillouette in the shadows. It was a tall figure in a human shape that had appeared to have no face except glowing red eyes and gas mask for a mouth. It also had one long blade as a substitute for it's left arm. It was dressed in a completely black suit.

"I can't believe you let him get away, and with the experiment!" He paced angrily around the lab, thinking of what to do next. He stopped and looked at the thing standing on the opposite side of the room.

"What are you going to do about this? I need him back to test my theories. If you don't bring him back here, I don't even want to begin going into what will happen to you." The figure shrugged it's shoulder and seemed to almost stride out of the room with no sound whatsoever. The doctor slammed his fist on a table and called for Jack, who was in another room. He peeked in through the door,

"Whatcha need, boss?" The doctor signaled for him to come in. He walked in and waddled towards him.

"I need you to go down into the reactor area and do something for me."

"Well, what did you have in mind, sir?" Jack asked with a worried tone. The doctor went quiet and looked at him with a grim look. He had to initiate the backup protocol.

Ethan ran through the hallways with great speed for he was being chased by a pack of Lickers that haven't eaten for awhile. He was caught in the middle of reloading when they had shown up. He had only been out on his own for ten minutes and was already in trouble.

"Why do these things always happen to me?" Ethan yelled to himself as he turned his rifle to the pack and opened fire while still running full speed ahead. He ripped through the front two Lickers by shredding their faces with 5.56mm ammunition.

"Sean! Where are you, buddy?" He said aloud as he reloaded again and turned right at an intersection; right into something that made him stop dead in his tracks.

Montie stepped in front of a huge bulkhead door that lay at the end of a long straight hallway. It appeared to have been recently seared with, what seemed like to him, electricity. He examined it more closely. He was close enough to smell the scent of that of a plasmid. He stepped back from it.

"I wonder who did this?" He said curiously. He summoned up his electro bolt power and shot it at the control panel near the bulkhead. Like much as he wanted it to be, it opened right up.

Montie drew out his pistol and moved into what appeared to be the shuttle bay. He looked in amazement at how big the bay room was. It was almost a full football field in size. It may not have been all that significant at home, but on a space facility on another planet with almost no atmosphere, it was a wonder of how it was built this big. Montie lingered on this thought for a few moments until a noice snapped him back into reality.

He spun around and aimed straight at Danny's chest, who was next to the shuttle, plasmid at the ready. They both realized that they weren't enemies of eachother, so they stowed their stuff. The boys walked over to meet.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" Montie asked.

"I came here to get the ship ready while Ethan went to go find Sean. But how did you get here? Didn't you get killed by those things with the huge tongues?"

"Yeah, well no. I was captured by that Newton guy. Then Sean found me and rescued me from him. Then I split up with him to go find this ship, while he went to go find you guys. So...yeah."

"Then what do we do then? Wait for them?" Danny wondered.

"That wouldn't be a bad idea, and I don't know where to start looking for them. Do you?" Danny shook his head.

"Nope. I guess we do have to stay here." Montie agreed.

Then they heard the sound of Splicers making their way towards them from the bulkhead door. They ran over to either side of the door and got ready for a fight, and from the sounds of things, they knew it was going to be a big one.

Sean left just a few seconds after Montie did, but he was nowhere to be seen. "Jeez, he's a fast little bugger." Sean thought to himself. He started off into the dark corridors of the facility, using knife carvings on the ends of every hallway to mark his path. He got to his eighth intersection when he saw, that on the floor, was a sign that read: Genetic/Plasmid Experimentation Laboratories. He decided to follow that with his mind set in curiousity.

After ten minutes of following the signs to the labs, he got to the entrance of the place. He thought of just checking it out, but there were soldiers guarding the entrance. He thought if there are armed guards here, then Newton might be here...and maybe even something of interest to him. He took a deep breath and readied his plasmid. He rounded the corner and walked towards the double doors.

The guards saw him and opened fire with L86 machine guns. But Sean just pushed his telekinesis up in front of him in an aurora of protection. The bullets immediately stopped inches from his face and kept gathering until the soldiers noticed that he wasn't falling to the floor. He decided to be nice and let the aurora dissipate and the bullets fall to the ground. He raised his hands in signs of surrender and the soldiers took the opportunity to seize him in flexicuffs and hauled him through the doors.

It looked like any old scientifical laboratory in terms of how it was set up, but Sean noticed the odd thing about it: Test subjects, and they were human. He was shocked, but not surprised. He knew how crazy Newton was, and he planned to end it.

He was taken to another room at the far end of the lab. As they went through, Sean saw Dr. Newton. He turned to meet them. At first he shouted at them to get out, until he saw that Sean was with them, then he stopped. He crossed his arms and put one foot out in a relaxed standing position.

"Let him go, but wait outside the door in case he tries something." Newton ordered the soldiers. They let him go and closed the door behind them.

"So, Sean, how have you been lately?" Sean looked him in the eye.

"Good."

"Good. Now let's get down to buisness. Why are you here?"

"Because I was looking for my friends." Sean was quiet, but very stern in his words. The doctor looked almost scared of his expression.

"I see, and Montie? How is he?"

"He's doing good, no thanks to you."

"I made him into what he is now. I need him back to prove if my theories are correct or not." Sean found his interest in this place.

"What theories? What are you really doing here?" Dr. Newton looked at him contently. He finally breathed in and started to explain.

"In 1987, I had found a genetic compound that could be combined with the human body to enhance it in both physical and mental capabilities by a great deal, hence, the plasmid. What it did was make the body's immune system accept the plasmid into it's system and allow it to modify the DNA strands by genetically altering the order of the strand's code. Which would later replicate itself throughout the entire body. In just a matter of hours, the host's DNA would be completely changed and they would become a whole new being."

"Like how?" Sean was very curious about this now.

"Well, the longer the host has the plasmid in their body, the stronger they would become. Enhanced strength, speed, agility, reflex, and most of all, brainpower. The average human only uses about three percent of their total brain processing power. The plasmid, over time, could let the human operate at nearly ten percent. It might not seem like much, but in terms of brainpower, it's absolutely amazing. It would allow them to access special mental capabilities such as telekinesis, or fire that comes out of nowhere from the head, or even electricity coming out through the fingers. It's spectacular."

"Is that what the human test subjects are for? To test if they can do what, more of everything?" Sean was beginning to see what had happened to the project here on Mars.

"That was why I moved my studies to another planet, because it was far too dangerous to experiment on these plasmids in a government-controlled workplace. I figured, why not just move up into another planet to further my research without them ever knowing what I was up to? The subjects I had observed sometimes got too...strong for my experiments. I had to de-neuralize eight of them. But those were the ones where I was testing a new formula of the plasmid. A more potent version, so to speak."

"What do you mean by 'more potent'?"

"I was trying to make a second version of the plasmid, a mach 2, if you will. It would make the host's brain operate at nearly fourty-seven percent. That's almost five times the power of a normal plasmid. Could you imagine what that could do to someone not strong enough to handle that? It would literally blow their head off! Oh my word, has Mr. Miller done anything strange since you found him?"

Sean thought of nothing, then wondered something.

"Why? Did you inject him with the mach 2 version?" Dr. Newton fiddled with his chin for a bit.

"Yes. Yes, I did. If he isn't dead by now, then I think he's the perfect host for it."

"What! How could you do that? How do you sleep at night?"

"I don't sleep, I rest my eyes a few times a day. But you need to get him back here so I can get a sample of his blood! He might be the one type I need to continue my research."

Sean considered this for a moment, but then had other ideas.

"No. I can't let you keep doing all of this to people. As you probably have already seen, this place is full of wrong doings by you and your experimentations. It's time you stop this, now." Sean narrowed his eyes.

"I can't just let go of 20 years of hard work and stress. I've come too far to lose it now. If you just bring Montie, I'd be done with everything! You've got to know that he is the prototype to all of my experiments and researching from the past thirty years ! You can't take that away from me!"

Sean did a front roll to get his arms in front of himself so he could use them. He used his plasmid to grab Newton in the throat to choke him to death. The soldiers came busting in through the door at the sound of loud commotion and tried to grab Sean. He let go, turned on one knee, grabbed the two soldiers, and slammed them into the opposite sides of the wall, knocking them out. He looked back to the doctor, only to see him press a button on the desk he was using to stand himself up with.

"What did you press? What does that button do?" Sean demanded. Newton just laughed.

"I just ordered my assistant to rig the reactors and oxygen recyclers to explode." He smiled cheerfully at Sean.

"What? Why-? Nevermind, you know what, good-bye then." He said as he took his M4 from the table a few feet away, walked to the door and turned around.

"How much time do we have?" Dr. Newton laughed when he put five fingers up. Sean aimed his rifle right at his head, and fired one single shot into the frontal lobe, and out in a spray of brains and blood onto the wall behind the doctors now-limp body. He smiled and said, "One less psycho maniac to worry about." Then he left in a full-on sprint.

**CHAPTER 15/ DAY 5**

Danny and Montie were exhausted after 25 minutes of nothing but plasmid discharging and gunshots going through the air and into Splicers, and they were still coming in groups.

"What do we do?" Montie yelled over everything.

"I don't know! The door won't shut still, and those Splicers just keep on coming. Nothing really we can do."

An explosion rang through the hallways and sent tremors up into their feet. They were taken off guard by it.

"What was that?" Danny said.

"It felt like an explosion or something." Montie shot a Splicer in the throat and fell to the ground, clutching it's neck.

"Yeah, it did. I wonder what just happened. Do you think it was the others?"

"Maybe, if they come here in a few minutes, then yeah, it might be." Montie said.

"They better, I'm ready to get out of here now."

"Me too, brother."

Ethan had just ran straight into a pair of Drillers that looked at him with yellow glowing eyes, and about to turn red. Two seconds of being face to face with them made the exchange from yellow to red. They started steaming and reving up their drills. Ethan turned right around and started to run away from them, but the Lickers were right behind him. When he passed the corner, one of them slid on the ground and Ethan dived over it and right into the ground six feet away. They all turned around and watched him struggle to get up, but he couldn't get back up because he broke his right ankle on the fall, and now he was trapped there. He grabbed his rifle, and reloaded one last time. He closed his eyes, and fired.

Sean ran out of the lab, shooting every random object in there on his way out. He followed his notches through the corridors, then took a right on the third intersection. He had memorized the route back to the shuttle bay area before he gave it to Montie. He sprinted through the facility as fast as he could sprint. He passed large groups of Splicers and Drillers and Lickers on his way, most of which started chasing him. He took a left and saw that up ahead, there was gunfire and lot's of creatures around it. He sprinted towards a pair of Drillers that were standing away from a pack of Lickers and shot a wave at them that took them off their feet and crashing down onto the ground. The Lickers were, Sean realized, around Ethan. He shot four of them in the face and head and killed everyone of them in one shot.

"Sean! You're alive!" Sean helped him up.

"We've got to get out of here, now! The whole station's gonna blow up in less than four minutes! Let's go!" They hurried as fast as they could with Ethan's injury.

"Which way!" Sean yelled out. They turned right then left, and found a long stretch of hallway with bodies everywhere in it.

"Must be the way. Let's move." Sean said. Ethan just went with it. He glanced at his watch: two minutes and fourty-six seconds left.

"We've gotta hurry!" Ethan urged him.

"I know! Just a little further!" The creatures were two hundred feet behind them.

Sean saw Montie's head poke out from one side of the door. He noticed it was them and came out of cover to help them.

"You guys okay?" He asked.

"We're being chased by three hundred Splicers, Lickers and Drillers, Ethan's got a broken ankle, and we've got two minutes before this place gets blown to hell. Yeah, we're okay." Sean said in an urgent voice. "Did you find Danny?"

"Yeah, he's getting the ship ready right now." Montie replied.

"Alright, get Ethan on board while I hold these things back." Sean ordered him. Montie nodded and helped him over to the shuttle. The ship's engines were starting to flare by then. Sean started to shoot into the crowd of Uglies and use up the rest of his ammo on this last crowd of them before they left.

But then Sean saw something move in blurry motions towards him. Red eyes? Red glowing eyes? Could it be from when they first landed here? No. Can't be. Yes. It is. It was getting into his head. A major migraine shot throughout his entire head. Sean dropped his M4 onto the floor and fell to his knees. He grasped his head and gritted his teeth in pain.

Time stopped. The pain was gone. He looked up confused, and saw the red eyes in his face. It was...serene. Peaceful...to look in it's eyes. He was in some other dimension while he looked through the glowing redness of it's eyes. He saw his home, his family, his friends, his life. Not this one, but the other one he had. It felt...real. He couldn't put his finger on what it meant. He felt like he was being sucked into the red cicles of another life. He went for the knife on his right leg. He grabbed it, pulled it out of the sheath, and plunged it into one eye.

The thing reared back and clutched the knife in it's eye socket. Blood squirted out from the wound and it spazed out. Finally, it fell face-first onto the tile. A puddle of blood came out from underneath.

More Splicers came from the opposite side of the shuttle bay, and were closing fast onto their position, hungry for meat. Literally hundreds of the creatures were closing in on all sides towards the boys. They had to get out of there fast, or they were going to be lunch.

Montie ran over to Sean and grabbed onto his collar and started to drag him back to the shuttle. He snapped out of it in a second, and was back in reality. Explosions started to erupt from within the facility.

"Sean! We've gotta go, now!" Montie shouted over the screams from the Splicers and gunfire from Ethan on the back of the shuttle, and Danny next to them, shocking everything around them. He stood up and stumbled to the shuttle with Montie helping him go.

"Danny, let's go! Get the controls!" Montie yelled over his shoulder.

"Thirteen seconds!" Ethan yelled out.

"Right." He responded. He let out a huge shockwave that passed through every living thing in the corridor, killing most of them instantly. They all got in the back of the shuttle and sat down. Ethan sealed the hatch door and buckeled in. Montie got Sean strapped in and sat next to him. Danny got on the controls.

They lifted off the floor and remotely opened the bay doors. They slid open slowly and let the air get sucked out into the vacumn, along with literally hundreds of bodies from the hallway. They floated lifelessly after seconds of having no oxygen to breathe in. It was an amazing moment. As the ship accelerated away from the facility, the bombs went off in the dark depths of the place. The explosions shook the shuttle, but didn't damage the hull or integrity. They were finally out of there.

**EPILOGUE**

Danny stabilized the ship and put it on a course towards Earth. He engaged auto-pilot and went back to the cabin, where everyone else was.

"Okay, we're on our way back home, guys. It'll probably take a few weeks or maybe a month or two, but we're going home." Danny announced. Ethan and Montie looked up at him with happy eyes.

"I don't care if it takes a year, I just love the sound of home." Montie said.

"Me too, brotha." Ethan agreed. Danny just smiled and sat down next to Ethan.

Sean just stared out the window, watching the UAC facility blow up in a soundless explosion. He couldn't think of all the lost lives in there. All the sacrifices. All of the tales that would be buried inside there, forever. He just watched in silence. They were safe now. He thought of what will happen when they got back home. He thought of how this has changed their lives. How it changed his life. But most importantly, how it would affect the events that will unfold when they get back to earth.

**THE END**


End file.
